Trent Bridge

England v South Africa: Statistical Preview

Featured News | 3rd September 2012

England face South Africa at Trent Bridge on Wednesday 5 September in the deciding match of the NatWest One Day International series.

Tickets for the match remain on general sale for the William Clarke Family Stand priced £40 for adults, £20 for under 21s, £10 for under 16s and £90 for families (2+2).

Tickets are available from the Trent Bridge ticket office, the ticket hotline (0844 8118711) and the online box office. All other areas of the ground are sold out.

It will be only the second time that the two countries have met here in an ODI, with England having convincingly won the 2008 encounter by 10-wickets. Nottinghamshire’s Stuart Broad took the Man of the Match honours after claiming figures of 5-23 as the South Africans were blown away for just 83 in 23 overs.

Matt Prior, who collected six catches on the day, then blasted a quickfire 45, alongside Ian Bell’s 28 as the target was chased down in 14.1 overs, making it the shortest completed ODI of all-time.

The Nottingham public certainly let the tourists know that they felt a little short-changed by the one-sided nature of the contest. This year’s South African side will certainly provide a sterner challenge as they need to win to level the series.

Coincidentally last season’s Trent Bridge ODI also resulted in a 10-wicket win for England. Set a revised Duckworth Lewis target of 171 in 48 overs Alistair Cook and Craig Keiswetter romped to the victory in 23.5 overs against Sri Lanka, with Cook making 95 and his partner 72.

That was the 35th One Day International at Trent Bridge, with the first taking place on 31 August 1974 when England played Pakistan. Originally scheduled to be a 55 over contest, morning rain reduced the contest to fifty overs per side. England made 244-4, with David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd carrying his bat throughout the innings to reach 116 not out.

Pakistan gave ODI debuts to Imran Khan and Zaheer Abbas but it was another of their celebrated batsmen, Majid Khan, who replied with a ton of his own as the tourists eased to a 7-wicket victory.

Apart from Lloyd, the other English batsmen to score Trent Bridge ODI centuries have been Keith Fletcher, Robin Smith, Alec Stewart, Nick Knight, Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood and Allan Lamb, who is the only cricketer to score two ODI hundreds on the ground – 118 v Pakistan in 1982 and 100 not out against the Aussies seven years later.

There have only been five visiting centurions – Majid and Zaheer for Pakistan – and three Australians, Trevor Chappell, who did it in a 1983 World Cup match against India, plus Ricky Ponting and Tim Paine, who both reached three figures here against England in 2009.

Paul Collingwood is one of three bowlers, alongside, Pakistan’s Waqar Younis and Ken MacLeay of Australia, to claim six-wicket hauls in Trent Bridge One Day Internationals – with Stuart Broad, joining the great Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev as the only others to get five-fors.

The closest finish in the previous 35 matches came in 1989 when England and Australia fought out a tied contest in a 55-over game – 226 runs apiece – and perhaps the biggest shock came during a 1983 World Cup match when Zimbabwe beat Australia by 13 runs - and nine of the previous matches were umpired by the late, great David Shepherd.

South Africa played their first ODI here in 1998 when they lost to Sri Lanka during a triangular tournament also featuring England. Amongst their side that day was Steve Elworthy, one of a long line of South African’s who have also played county cricket for Nottinghamshire.

Other South Africans to have appeared on the Trent Bridge staff include Clive Rice, Kenny Watson, Lance Klusener, Nicky Boje, Ashwell Prince and Hashim Amla, who made four championship appearances in Notts’ 2010 title-winning side.

There’s no finer cricketing sight than a packed Trent Bridge all spruced up for international duty and the fine forecast will see Trent Bridge keep up its proud record of not having lost an ODI game to the elements.

Dave Bracegirdle is the author of Nottinghamshire CCC On This Day, a book which chronicles key events in the illustrious history of the Club and its famous venue, Trent Bridge.